Anyone who has lived around the shores of Jervis Bay can attest to the nose and vibrations that reverberate across the bay when the navy is conducting naval shooting exercises.
The sounds are recognizable to everyone, repeated low intensity thuds, vibrations, that can have your windows rattling, unaware visitors can be surprised at the intensity.
In 1996 while conducting one of these exercises H.M.A.S Anzac, shelled and holed her sister ship H.M.A.S Tobruk, in a practice shoot.
Anzac was using Tobruk as a target with the guns set to land the salvo 6 degrees astern or ahead of the ship, this is called a “throwing off” exercise.
A malfunction in Anzac 's gun direction equipment negated the deliberate 6° mis-aiming of her guns and a 4.7 inch shell ripped into Tobruk’s half inch steel plating near the water line, fortunately they were using practice shells that don’t contain explosive.
Water flooded the engine room to a depth of 14ft.
There were no casualties, but the Tobruk’s engine room crew had to be hurriedly evacuated to avoid being trapped, pumps helped reduce the water while Anzac took Tobruk in tow and bought her back to Jervis Bay.
She limped back to Sydney, where it was found she was damaged beyond economical repair and was decommissioned that same year, and sold for scrap in 1971.
H.M.A.S Anzac H.M.A.S Tobruk.
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